Total pages in book: 121
Estimated words: 114617 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 573(@200wpm)___ 458(@250wpm)___ 382(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 114617 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 573(@200wpm)___ 458(@250wpm)___ 382(@300wpm)
It was weird to only be learning this now. Weirder still to realize how little I knew about my people. But it wasn’t a surprise.
My fists balled at my sides. As I learned harshly, brutally, and violently only a short time before, I didn’t know anything about Wolf Nation.
Not a fucking thing.
“How come you’re not afraid?”
I pulled out of my thoughts. “What?”
Nia studied me with a strangely intense expression. “I... I... I lived my whole life thinking no one could hurt me, and then...” She looked away. “But people can hurt you, Daze. People want to hurt you. I know what that feels like now and it’s the worst,” she hissed. “Is this what people feel like all the time?”
I met her gaze steadily. “It’s how women feel.”
She flinched. “How do you do it? How... do I do it?”
I didn’t need to ask what she meant. “It’s simple, Nia.” I reached out and accepted my pancakes. “You get stronger, and then you get even.”
I turned, and came face to face with Badr.
My hand was already inching toward my knife, ready for—
“Nia,” he said, dismissing me completely. “Sit with us.”
The guy said her name and Nia still looked around like he could be talking to someone else. “What? Me? Why?”
“Because what happened shouldn’t have happened. We should’ve looked out for you. From now on, we will.” A smile completely foreign to his face appeared on his lips. “From now on, you’re with us.”
All the whispering about me stopped, because everyone was too busy gaping at Nia.
A personal invitation from one of the most popular, and handsome, alphas in the school to sit at a table everyone else isn’t even allowed to look at too hard? It was unheard of.
“But— But, uh—” She flicked to me. “I’m not allowed to leave her side.”
Holly placed Nia’s lemon blueberry scones at the window. Badr picked it up before she could move. “Volana comes too,” he tossed over his shoulder, walking off.
“Um.” Nia rubbed her arms, looking from her watching audience to me. “Is this cool with you?”
“That’s for you to say,” I replied, expressionless. “I understand if you’re not interested in being surrounded by alphas, but for what it’s worth. I think they’ve already proven they’ve got your back.”
Her grip tightened on her shoulders, as if she was trying to keep herself together. “Maybe no one will—again if I’m close to the Chosen Five.” She ripped a word out of that sentence, but I filled in the blanks just fine. “Don’t you think?”
Something approaching pity filled my chest. The woman didn’t trust her wolf anymore. She didn’t trust her to protect her, so now she was relying on her enemy to be an internal compass. If I was the best Nia could do, then Luame help that girl.
“Solid logic,” I said simply.
“Okay,” she whispered. “Okay, okay.”
Nia psyched herself up, slowly setting off for the dais. I followed at a sedate, but determined pace. In many ways she was walking into the belly of the beast, but not in any of the ways I was.
It wasn’t her Nyx, Orion, Edric, and Badr wanted to torture, blackmail, then lock up and throw away the key.
Ava gave me the mother of all filthy looks when I sat down across from her.
“I don’t get this,” she snapped at Badr. “A fish and a psycho are sitting with us now? I don’t know which is worse.”
My mouth opened to say something scathing.
“If you’ve got a problem with it,” Edric sliced in, “sit somewhere else. And while you’re packing your shit, you can stop calling her fish.”
Ava tensed, face purpling. She definitely had a problem with it, but if she moved to another table, everyone would see the queen get dethroned, while a fish claimed her place.
She sat up, nose lifting. “I don’t have a problem with it, but Badr does. He doesn’t want her anywhere near him, and we have to respect that.” Ava looked right at me. “The f— The omega can stay. You leave.”
“Mmm, these pancakes are delicious.” I chomped down, moaning pornographically. “Nia, you’re going to kick yourself for passing on these— Actually, no you’re not. Try them.”
She frowned at me, no doubt wondering why I was being so buddy-buddy, then her brows smoothed out. I knew understanding dawned when a smile tugged at the corner of her mouth. “Please, don’t tempt me. I’m supposed to be on a diet. I shouldn’t even be eating these scones.”
“Leave,” Ava barked. “Bitch, get up and go!”
“You won’t regret breaking your diet for these,” I replied, ignoring Ava completely, knowing she hated that more than sitting with a hundred fishes. Paxton chose that moment to return with Badr’s food. He tossed me a wink as he set it down, and I forced myself to ignore that too.
“I wouldn’t be worried about breaking my diet for them during the omega mealtime,” Nia said. “They’re only serving us this stuff because we’re all mixed now.”